A European Commission court upheld an antitrust fine that was imposed three years ago against Lundbeck and four other drug makers for allegedly conspiring to delay the availability of a lower-cost generic version of an antidepressant.
The ruling by the General Court of the European Union came in response to an appeal of a 2013 decision that found Lundbeck and the generic drug makers pursued a pay-to-delay deal that violated European Union anticompetition regulations. The European Commission had fined the companies a total of $165 million with Lundbeck ordered to pay the bulk of the fine, or about $105 million.
The court ruled that the European Commission had correctly established that the agreements eliminated competitive pressure from the generic companies and restricted competition. Moreover, the court decided that Lundbeck was not able to justify why the agreements would have been needed to protect its intellectual property rights, according to a statement by the European Commission.
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